ABSTRACT
Upon recently re-reading the cover letter for my tenure file, I experienced a strong, deeply ambivalent emotional reaction. The letter contained, as they all “must” do, a laundry list of accomplishments and accolades. On the whole, the letter reflected neither the complex components of my academic career, nor my life. This essay will ask: What do we do in the space of the academic cover letter and how could we enlarge, enliven, elasticize, or eviscerate that space so that more lived complexity might fit, and be seen with more awareness of positive potential, more compassion? How could we imagine such spaces as open and fluid so that the collective who seek social justice could make the university different and differently?
